PERIODIC PURSUITS
Symbol Na, this element is essential for both nerve function and pretzels.
What is sodium?
The -OH functional group goes by this name.
What is hydroxyl?
To three significant figures, this is the value of Avogadro's number.
What is 6.02 x 10^23?
This double-helical biomolecule stores hereditary information in nearly every cell.
What is DNA?
Mayonnaise and vinaigrettes are examples of this type of mixture, where one liquid is dispersed within another.
What is an emulsion?
In 1669, Hennig Brand discovered this glowing element by boiling down massive quantities of urine.
What is phosphorus?
This type of covalent bond involves equal sharing of electrons between atoms.
What is a nonpolar covalent bond?
This law, summarized as PV = nRT, treats gases as having no volume and no intermolecular forces.
What is the ideal gas law?
1H NMR exploits the magnetic moment of this subatomic particle.
What is the proton?
This browning reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars gives a seared steak its flavor.
What is the Maillard reaction?
This element, symbol W, takes its English name from the Swedish for "heavy stone."
What is tungsten?
Of SN1 and SN2, this one follows first-order kinetics and proceeds through a carbocation intermediate.
What is SN1?
When the reaction quotient Q is less than the equilibrium constant K, the reaction shifts in this direction.
What is forward (toward products)?
This separation technique relies on differential partitioning between a mobile and a stationary phase.
What is chromatography?
This protein network, formed when wheat flour meets water and is kneaded, gives bread its chew.
What is gluten?
Marie and Pierre Curie isolated this radioactive element in 1898, naming it after Marie's homeland.
What is polonium?
This pericyclic [4+2] cycloaddition between a diene and a dienophile earned its discoverers the 1950 Nobel.
What is the Diels-Alder reaction?
Combust 3 moles of H2 with 1 mole of O2, and this reactant runs out first.
What is oxygen?
Sanger developed a method for sequencing nucleic acids; Edman developed one for sequencing peptides. Together, these are examples of techniques for sequencing this broad class of molecule.
What are biopolymers?
Cutting an onion releases enzymes that produce this volatile sulfur compound, the actual chemical reason your eyes water.
What is syn-propanethial-S-oxide?
Detected in the sun's spectrum before being found on Earth, this element was named for the Greek word for the sun.
What is helium?
This acid-catalyzed rearrangement converts ketoximes into amides and is a key industrial step in producing nylon-6.
What is the Beckmann rearrangement?
his equation relates a reaction's rate constant to its activation energy and absolute temperature.
What is the Arrhenius equation?
PCR amplifies DNA using this heat-stable enzyme, originally isolated from a Yellowstone hot-spring bacterium.
What is Taq polymerase?
Spherification, the molecular-gastronomy trick that makes liquid "caviar," relies on this seaweed-derived polysaccharide reacting with calcium ions.
What is sodium alginate?